An Open Response to Rabbi Pini Dunner: Torah Isn’t a Slogan — It’s Our Shield
A heartfelt, point-by-point response to Rabbi Pini Dunner’s essay — clarifying what the atzeres truly was, why Torah learning is Israel’s greatest protection, and how the Belzer framework can only succeed if Torah remains fully sovereign.
First Please Read Rabbi Dunner's Essay here: https://rabbidunner.com/beyond-slogans-and-protests/
Rabbi Dunner, your compassion for families of lomdei Torah is appreciated, and your recognition of their sincerity is noted. But your essay repeats deep misconceptions that need to be corrected — not only because they misrepresent the Charedi community, but because they obscure a fundamental truth about what truly protects Am Yisrael.
Let’s go point by point.
1) “No room for dissent” and “self-inflicted poverty”? False and unfair
You wrote that Charedi families live “in a system that leaves almost no room for dissent” and that their poverty is “not self-inflicted.” The first phrase implies coercion; the second, reluctant sympathy. But both miss the point.
Most Charedi families choose their path with full conviction. They aren’t “trapped.” They are inspired. They believe — correctly — that learning Torah is the greatest zechus and the truest avodah. Poverty is not a sign of failure. It is the cost of eternal values in a temporary world.
When the government cut stipends, the outpouring of support from American and global Jews wasn’t pity for “victims of a system.” It was awe and respect for those who sustain the Jewish people through Torah.
You do clarify that the majority doesn't feel this way in your next paragraph, then why bring this up at all?
2) The “Million Man Protest” was not a protest — it was an Atzeres Tefillah
Calling it a “protest” cheapens it. This was not a march of rebellion; it was a cry to Heaven. Hundreds of thousands gathered because the Gedolei Yisrael — the true spiritual generals of Klal Yisrael — called for it.
Five resolutions were read publicly, affirming that Torah is our life, that lomdei Torah must not be persecuted, and that our community will never accept criminalization of Torah study.
It wasn’t about avoiding service. It was about declaring: The Torah is not negotiable.
It is a shame that more from the Dati Leumi community didn't join us (although thousands did) and we are thankful to HaRav Tzvi Thau, a leading Dati Leumi Rav and Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshivas Har Hamor, who did say the community should attend this Kavod HaTorah Atzeres.
As for the tragic death you mentioned, it was a heartbreaking personal tragedy — not a result of the gathering. Baruch Hashem, with hundreds of thousands present, the event was safe and peaceful.
3) “Charedim can’t expect to live in a country and not share its defense” — we do, through Torah
This argument misunderstands the very foundation of Jewish belief.
The Torah itself tells us:
“אִם־לֹ֣א בְרִיתִ֔י יוֹמָ֖ם וָלָ֑יְלָה חֻקּ֤וֹת שָׁמַ֙יִם֙ וָאָ֔רֶץ לֹ֥א שָׂמְתִּֽי.”
“If not for My covenant of Torah by day and by night, I would not have established the laws of heaven and earth.” (Yirmiyahu 33:25)
Our world exists only in the merit of Torah.
Our protection is spiritual before it is physical.
This is not a metaphor. It’s halachic reality, stated by the greatest of our sages:
- “תּוֹרָה הִיא הַמָּגֵן הָאֲמִתִּי לְיִשְׂרָאֵל.”
“The Torah is the true shield of Israel.” — Chazon Ish zt"l, Emunah u’Bitachon - “כל זאת על ידי עמלות בתורה”
“All this [rain, peace, victory, Shechinah] comes only through toil in Torah - Sfas Emes, Bechukosai 5637 - Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l:
“The study of Torah by the dedicated learner is the foundation of the world’s existence... just as the soldier stands on the front lines to defend the people with weapons, so too the Torah scholar defends them with words of Torah, which are ‘our life and the length of our days’ (Deut. 32:47). Without this merit, no battle—spiritual or physical—can succeed.”
Generations of Gedolim — the Chazon Ish zt"l, the Sfas Emes zt"l, Rav Moshe Feinstein zt"l, Rav Shach zt"l, Rav Ovadia Yosef zt"l, Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky zt"l — have all taught: Torah is the Iron Dome.
4) The Gulf War — when Hashem showed who really protects us
If you want proof that Torah and tefillah protect more than tanks, look back to 1991.
During the Gulf War, 39 Scud missiles rained down on Israel. Buildings collapsed, homes were destroyed — but miraculously, only one person died directly from those missile strikes. One. And he was brining chazer into Eretz HaKodesh.
By contrast, a single missile that struck a U.S. Army base killed hundreds.
Where was the Israeli army’s defense then? There was no Iron Dome, no interception system. It was pure miracles.
And every Rav, from Rav Shach zt"l to Rav Ovadia Yosef zt"l, said the same thing: it was the zechus of Torah and the tefillos of Klal Yisrael that protected the nation.
That’s not superstition. That’s history.
5) “Manpower is stretched” — a false argument
If this were truly about manpower, the government would go after the tens of thousands of secular draft dodgers. It doesn’t. It only targets bnei Torah. Why? Because this is not a security problem — it’s a spiritual power struggle.
They fear not our absence in the army, but our strength in the beis midrash. They fear that a nation led by Torah, not politics, would expose their moral bankruptcy as we are clearly seeing today. As you said, we make up 14% of the nation. Their fear is 20-30 years from now.
6) “The State has funded Torah like never before”
True. But it’s not a favor. It’s the smartest investment in national survival they’ve ever made.
The State funds hospitals, highways, and universities. Why? Because they understand those things preserve life. Torah preserves life infinitely more — for all Jews, whether they realize it or not.
If they truly understood the source of their success, they’d quadruple the support. As Rav Shach zt”l said, “Your tanks protect borders; my bochurim protect the nation.”
By the way, this all sounds eerily similar to what the Gemara says in Bava Basra 10b — that in the end of days, the nations of the world will come before Hashem and claim they built roads, bridges, and marketplaces “for the sake of Israel, so they could learn Torah.”
I can picture a strikingly similar scene when Moshiach comes: the secular Jews — may they all have done full teshuvah by then — will stand before Hashem and say, “We built the roads, the homes, the hospitals, and the infrastructure so the Bnei Torah could learn and live!”
And even though they won’t mean it that way, the irony is that it will be true. Every bit of material progress by the State of Israel, every brick and beam, ultimately exists only to serve the Torah and those who uphold it.
7) “You live here — you’re part of the Zionist story”
We live here because this land is Eretz HaKodesh, given to us by Hashem and not the UN and not because of any modern ideology. Jews lived here before there was a State, and will continue after it when Moshiach comes.
We do not owe our loyalty to secular institutions. Our allegiance is to Torah, not to politicians. Democracy is not a Torah concept.
The Charedi community isn’t anti-Israel. It’s pro-Am Yisrael.
We pray for the safety of every Jew. We simply refuse to be forced into an army that operates without Torah guidance. Here is just one example of why we can't and won't: https://www.charedim.com/does-the-idf-put-soldiers-in-harms-way-because-of-political-and-legal-pressures/
8) The Belzer framework — a possible bridge, if Torah stays supreme
Rabbi Dunner, here we agree in part. The Belzer initiative for married men who cannot learn full-time shows what a voluntary, Torah-guided partnership can look like.
But three red lines must remain absolute:
- Total separation of authority – Participants must remain under rabbinic supervision, not military command.
- Spiritual protection – No mixed settings, no chillul Shabbos, no compromise on halacha or tznius.
- Voluntary, not coercive – This can never replace the exemption for lomdei Torah.
If those lines are honored, programs like Belz can provide economic dignity for some — without enslaving us to a secular framework.
As the Chazon Ish wrote, Torah is “המגן האמיתי לישראל” — the true shield of Israel. We will never surrender that shield.
9) The truth Rabbi Dunner missed
We aren’t living in “parallel universes.” We’re living in the same land, under the same sky, praying to the same Creator — but one group trusts in the army and the medina, and the other trusts only in Hashem.
Our Torah learning is not an escape from responsibility; it is our responsibility.
It is the lifeline of the Jewish people.
And the proof of history — from Har Sinai to the Gulf War to every day of Jewish survival — is clear:
Whenever Torah learning is diminished, dangers increase. Whenever Torah is strengthened, Klal Yisrael is saved.
In Closing
We will build bridges where possible. We thank soldiers, medics, and rescuers for their hishtadlus. But we will never confuse hishtadlus with emunah.
And if there is a way forward, it will be built not on coercion — but on Torah sovereignty, mutual respect, and the eternal recognition that every Jew’s safety depends, first and foremost, on the sound of Torah and a life of mesorah echoing through our land.
We also want to thank Rabbi Dunner for sparking this important dialogue. Conversations like this matter — they expose how deep the divide has become, but they also reveal how much room there still is for clarity, respect, and honest discussion. This exchange is only the tip of the iceberg.
There are so many misconceptions still left to unpack — about what “sharing the burden” really means, about how even those who don’t learn full time are not permitted to join the army, as ruled unequivocally by HaGaon HaRav Avigdor Nebenzahl shlita, who stated that “even a Charedi bochur who, unfortunately, isn’t learning Torah, must not be tempted to enlist in the army, not even into the frameworks established there for Charedim, as the Gedolei Yisrael have instructed.”
And perhaps most misunderstood of all: the vast, unrecognized ways in which the Charedi community already contributes to the safety, welfare, and spiritual vitality of Am Yisrael — through chessed, through tzedakah and gemachim, through volunteering, through emunah, and through the Torah that keeps this nation alive.
We address those points and dozens of others in other articles. But for now, one truth must be said clearly:
Our emunah is our army. Our Torah is our Iron Dome. And our mesorah — unbroken, eternal — is the only foundation upon which the Jewish future can stand.